Are you the Carrot, Egg or Bean?
I was sitting in a room full of at least 500+ Carolina One agents and we were minuets away from the start of our company wide meeting to kick of 2023. We were told Damon West would be speaking to us today. The author of “The Coffee Bean” with bestselling author (John Gordon) and that we were definitely in for a treat. — Let me tell ya’ll, this man changed my life in a matter of 2 hours.
A little back story on Damon, (since I want ya’ll to read into his life more, I’ll only tell you snip bits lol) He was raised in a great home out of Texas, Parents were never divorced, used to play football & had what every 20 year old would dream of. Until the day he got hurt & wasn’t able to play football any longer. — He started a career on Wall street & not long after you know what happened….. He got hooked, drugs were his calling & nothing else mattered. He went from having it all to nothing. He was robing homes to pay for his addiction when one day his whole entire life changed, but for the better. — He had been sitting in his apartment with his drug dealer about to hit the pipe, when out of nowhere a gas canister flys through the window & lands at his feet. His heart sank, he knew it was SWAT coming for him. Within seconds his door was kicked down & an officer was pointing a gun at his head telling him to put his hands in the air.
After that, Damon was sentenced & put in a high maximum prison in Texas. He didn’t know what he was about to get into. He had grown up not knowing the difference between races, he believed everyone should be equal & be friends or love whoever they wanted. No matter what color they were. He knew that prison wasn’t like that though…. He knew they were still so segregated. & until the day he meets Mr. Jackson.
One morning Mr. Jackson comes up to Damons cell to talk with him, coffee in hand and smile on his face. Damon asks Mr. Jackson “How am I ever going to survive in here? I’ve never been locked up and I don’t want to join a gang to survive.”
Mr. Jackson nods and gestures his coffee mug towards Damon, and says “Life is often like a pot of boiling water. It can be a harsh, stressful, and difficult place. You will find yourself in environments and facing conditions that test who you truly are, and can change, weaken or harden you if you let them. Now think of prison as this boiling pot of water, you take a Carrot, Egg and Coffee bean. Damon do you know what happens when you take a carrot and drop it in a pot of boiling water?”
Damon pauses and replies “It gets soft and weakened.”
Mr Jackson replies “Yes! If you think you are a carrot, you will believe the power and forces outside you are more powerful than who you are on the inside, and you will become weaker. Now if you put an egg in a boiling pot of water what happens?”
Damon replies “It hardens and if you think you are an egg, you will believe the negativity in the world has the power to harden your heart and cause you to become negative like the ones around you.”
Mr. Jackson says “You got it right! Now Damon, what do you think happens to the coffee bean?” — Damon replies “Well, it changes the water and makes it into coffee. So essentially, it changes its environment. In a positive way?”
Mr. Jackson smiles and nods “If you know you are the coffee bean, you will not allow the outside world to impact you. You will know the power inside you is greater than the forces outside, and with this insight, you will transform your environment, people and the world around you.”
This is a powerful lesson for life. And as the story continues, we also learn that it is easy to forget when the pressures and circumstances around us become great. Fear and worry are powerful emotions that easily sidetrack our best intentions and critical thinking skills. In these times, remember, we can be the coffee bean.
Living in fear is our worst enemy. We miss out on SO many opportunities because we let that little voice inside our head tell us different. Think about this the next time you want to step out of your comfort zone, because you never know what heights it will take you to, and I promise, only good outcomes come from making big moves. Don’t let yourself hold you back from making the legacy you want to leave.
My next blog will be about my life and how I’ve used the coffee bean theory without even knowing it. Stay tuned…..
In the meantime please, go Follow Damon West on Instagram & order his book on Amazon! You won’t regret it!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/damonwest7/?hl=en
Amazon Link: “The Coffee Bean: A Simple Lesson To Create Positive Change” (John Gordon & Damon west) https://a.co/d/09I5VbH
xoxo, Katt ❤
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